The Champ (1931) on Netflix
In Tijuana, Andy "Champ" Purcell, a former heavyweight champion, tries to line up a fight while raising his eight-year-old son Dink. His drinking and gambling keep disappointing the boy.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.2/104,016 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
Andy "Champ" Purcell, once the world heavyweight champion, now lives in squalid conditions in Tijuana, Mexico, with Dink, his eight-year-old son. Champ tries to persuade promoters to arrange a bout for him, but his alcoholism blocks the way, and his broken promises and gambling repeatedly let the boy down, though Dink's devotion never wavers. After a winning streak, Champ keeps an earlier promise and buys Dink a horse. The boy names it Little Champ, and the two mean to race it. At the track, Dink meets a woman named Linda, who is his mother without either of them knowing it, and who is now married to a wealthy man, Tony. Linda decides to take Dink out of the life he is growing up in and into her own home, and Tony asks Champ to give the boy up.
Cast
Show all 13 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Champ (1931)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Wallace Beery claimed he turned down a $500,000 offer from a syndicate of Indian studios to play Buddha so he could take the role in The Champ instead.
- Off-screen, Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper had no chemistry: Cooper accused Beery of upstaging him and trying to undermine his performances, which Cooper blamed on jealousy.
- After The Champ, Wallace Beery signed an MGM contract giving him one dollar a year more than any other actor on the lot, making him the world's highest-paid actor.
- The picture made nine-year-old Jackie Cooper the first child star of the 1930s, an era noted for its many popular child actors.
- The Champ is considered one of the films that inspired Yasujirō Ozu's Japanese classic Passing Fancy (1933) and, in part, the father and son in the Berenstain Bears books.
- Instead of shooting the Tijuana horse racing track scenes on location, the production built a special outdoor set for them.
- Wallace Beery won the Best Actor Oscar for The Champ, sharing the prize with Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while Frances Marion won Best Story.
